Vegetarian at work buys chicken pasta but picks the chicken out??

[rhysella]

She claims she's a vegetarian for moral reasons but still BUYS the chicken pasta at work, but picks it out. I've suggested to her that she's still funding the animals death and that if she likes the chicken, she may as well have eaten that.. probably fairer to the chicken that died. She looked disgusted at me and apparently I don't understand vegetarianism and that she physically can't bring her self to eat "the poor animal that should never have been food". I fully understand why vegetarians have that view, I do. However, surely you don't then BUY chicken??

I know this is is pointless

sounds like my SIL too....I don't eat meat but tucks into ham every xmas, chicken and anything with mince. Your colleague cannot call herself a vegetarian.....she can however call herself a 'muppet' ........

Tbf to some ‘vegetarians’ like this, it might be that they want to reduce rather than eliminate meat, but if they don’t say they’re vegetarian someone will make them eat meat when they don’t want to. Like going to someone’s house for a meal, if they say they’re veggie, nobody is going to serve them a slab of meat.

I bet the poor animal would rather have been food than tossed in the bin.

I don't get that. In the animal's eyes it died for nothing anyway. Doesn't really make a difference what you do with its body. If someone murders me, I won't feel happier about it if they tell me they're going to eat my dead body afterwards...

I agree brenda. To the chicken it’s dead. But by increasing demand for chicken, the ‘vegetarian’ woman is condemning more chickens to a shit, short life in some battery farm. Pre-made pasta dishes don’t usually contain free range organic chicken.

I am vegetarian and I have, on occasion, had meals where I have picked the meat out - vegetable soup with lumps of ham in, or salad with tuna sprinkled on it. All the occasions I can think of though are in foreign countries where vegetarianism is rare and language barriers have made things difficult. If it was an one-off accidental purchase, I can understand your colleague picking off the chicken. If she is deliberately buying chicken pasta though, that is just plain weird.

Ugh I know someone like this and it does my head in. Getting teary eyed whilst talking about the dairy industry one minute, and then trying the sauce out of my beef massaman curry the other. It's not the fact they do it (not my business) but it's the constant preachy comments they give out about their lifestyle choice that make it so hypocritical!

I would do this. I dont want to not eat meat and I would love nothing more than to just eat it so I will get something with meat in it and try to eat it. Before I can take a bite though I overthink.
If it's beef I picture a cows big eyes and eyelashes and if it's pork I picture a pigs nose. It then seems so unnatural to eat it.

I have high anxiety though and go through stages of not being able to eat anything because I'm worried it's contaminated in some way.

I would love to feel normal. The only time I can eat meat is if I'm out and have had a drink - it lowers my anxiety and I don't overthink.

I don't think I'm an idiot or a fuckwit though, mentally ill perhaps but not intentionally harmful.

That sounds really tough molehill and I doubt anyone would call you a fuckwit for that .

Do you mind me asking though, and do tell me to fuck off if you like ; why do you feel you have to buy something with meat in it when you don’t want to eat meat?

Thanks, I don't mind at all. I convince myself that I can do it. The process of overthinking only starts either when I'm paying for it if it's prepackaged or when I'm cooking it.

Its a bit easier when I'm cooking it. I made a full chicken roast dinner the other day with chicken and pigs in blankets. I put it all on my plate with mash, roast potatoes, green beans, Yorkshire's and cranberry sauce. When it came to eating it though I couldn't. I had the usual problem with the meat, I started thinking that the green beans and carrots could have bugs in them and the Yorkshire's are made with egg. I had to lie and say after eating a little mash that I had had a big breakfast and couldn't finish it and shared it out with my DH and kids (DH knows the truth).

You're not a fuckwit, for several reasons. You aren't deliberately supporting a trade you don't agree with, narrating to everyone in the vicinity that the trade you've just fuelled demand for shouldn't exist, and then telling people who point out the holes in your logic that they don't understand vegetarianism.

She's thick

I’m a vegetarian myself. At work I make sure anything I eat is vegetarian. My coworkers know of my dietary preferences and requirements as well.
Whenever I’m baking meat I use separate chopping boards and ensure that the meat is shared accordingly with any meat eaters. Why is she your friend? There’s a gaping hole in her logic here which needs fixing pronto.
Plus she sounds twisted and dangerous.

Virtue signalling performance vegetarianism. She's either a) not veggie or b) following a trend she doesn't understand

@rhysella

"when she's flicking the chicken in the bin right in front of me and saying "god poor thing" and then tucking right into the pasta"

I was a vegetarian for years, your colleague is a fucking idiot and a wasteful one at that. 🤔

She isn't a vegetarian.

Not RTFT, but what the hell's the point of that?!
Surely a vegetarian wouldn't want to be contributing to the killing of chickens to make her food just to pick it out?!
Plus there'll be chicken juices (technical term lol) in there in the pasta even when Barking Colleague has discarded any chicken items.
Yeah, she's not a veggie. Just rather strange.

The term 'virtue signalling performance vegetarian' is a damn sight more apt than the current trend for people to claim to be 'part time vegetarians' or flexitarians because they don't have meat in every meal.

It's like the word omnivore was never invented.

@nephrite I was just about to type the same thing. I’m sure she’s a lovely girl even though she’s a vegetarian

Rhysella, she sounds like an attention seeking idiot. I’d try and ignore it, I’m sure that’ll annoy her more than you.

Love the Royle family. I watch "the New Sofa" every Christmas and watched the "Mary's in the Dyson" episode recently. Brilliant!

Put an “I pay for chickens to be killed so I can throw them away” sign on her desk?

I am vegetarian and I have, on occasion, had meals where I have picked the meat out - vegetable soup with lumps of ham in, or salad with tuna sprinkled on it

Then you’re not a vegetarian.

I have nearly 5 decades experience of being a vegetarian so I think I speak with some authority.

Your colleage is wrong. And probably bonkers as well.

You're right, she'd be better actually eating the poor chicken than throwing it away! Or avoiding meat if it's really for moral reasons.

And you care because?

@PositivelyPERF - curious to see your reasoning there.